Excellent Storyline, Cast and Cars but steam should add need for speed most wanted 2005

EA is selling an outdated version of Undercover on Steam, while they have the fully updated one on Origin.

Thanks alot EA.

EDIT: A few things

Firstly, the Origin version has been delisted. The comments say that the Origin version was more broken with the patch, so take it as you will.

Secondly, this review has been copy and pasted multiple times. Not that I care, but its odd to see.

Thirdly, someone made me aware that even though Steam doesn't display the key, you do get an Origin key. When you install and run the game, open regedit, and head to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Electronic Arts\EA Games\Need for Speed Undercover\ergc" There, you can find the key and activate it on Origin.

Thanks steam for this but what I wanted is need for speed underground 2!

EA is selling an outdated version of Undercover on Steam, while they have the fully updated one on Origin.

Thanks alot EA.

While this review is old, I figured I should throw out a PSA that NFS Undercover is no longer purchasable, as it has been permanently delisted as of May 31 2021.

Where do I start with this...

Need for Speed Undercover has been bashed, beaten & overall just despised by the entire Need for Speed community, often described as "one of the absolute worst Need for Speed games ever made". But, judging you see that giant blue thumbs up, you obviously can tell that I don't think that way.

Now, those of you who really hate long reviews, here's a short pros-n'-cons review to not waste your time:

+Can run on a toaster
+Easy-to-follow story
+Visuals are passable
+Decent soundtrack
+Gameplay is fun

-Story is inconsistent and highly forgettable
-Horrible racer & cop AI
-No "Perfect Start" (a prominent feature in Most Wanted, Carbon & World)

If you just want a racing game where you could really care less for story & want one that can run on your toaster computer, then yes, NFS Undercover should fill that niche for you quite nicely & I recommend the game for the price it's asking.

Now then, short review done. Let's get on with the long review!

I'm not gonna bother with a brief synopsis of the story, since that's what the store page basically tells you. But what I will give will be my thoughts on the story. So. I think the story in Undercover is garbage. It's very sloppily put together. Some characters come & go without a proper explanation, some characters are given NO INTRODUCTION and just sort of...appear, other characters for some reason or another just swap roles mid-story, eh, you get the point. I get that it's to be expected that a racing game will have a terrible story, but back when this game was announced & being promoted like the next best thing, it tried to take itself seriously, with all the trailers & promotional videos. So, yes, the story is trash, introduces characters & gets rid of characters periodically & tries to take itself way too seriously, which is why I don't like it & find it very forgettable. It shouldn't take you more than 10 hours to beat the entire story, I, for one, beat the single player campaign in around 8 hours & now am doing my second runthrough on the Steam version of this game, just for the sake of adding in more gameplay hours.

Before I move on to the meat of the review, being the gameplay, I wanna briefly go over the game's visuals. They look...passable. Now, I've had the pleasure of experiencing this game both in 1080p Ultra Settings & 480p Very Low Settings, and generally - I am impressed with the framerate. The game (for the most part) is very consistent with the framerate on newer hardware & back when my good PC was still alive & played this game for the 8 hours it took to complete the single player campaign, the framerate was crazy-stable at 60 FPS, with sometimes dropping below when there were too many cops at once, which is understandable. As for the visuals themselves, everything in the game world, including the road you drive on & the water beyond the shores looks "alright" at best. Yes, Black Box has done MUCH better in terms of visuals in Carbon & even Most Wanted, but I don't think the game looks ugly by any means, but certainly doesn't live up to the 2008 year it came out in. And the audio? The car sounds are remarkably pleasant to listen to, giving off the feeling that the car you drive FEELS like an actual car and not a freaking go-kart. The soundtrack is picked rather well & there are a handful of songs I don't like, sure, I like most of the soundtrack.

And now, we move on to the meat of the review - the gameplay. Need for Speed Undercover's gameplay tries to emulate the critically-acclaimed gameplay of Most Wanted & Carbon while trying to introduce enough new things to stand on its own. First of all - the controls are great. Every car feels very responsive & turning even with the slowest of muscle cars while using a keyboard, not a controller or wheel, felt super reliable & the car showed no signs of delay. which is great, as great control is what makes the game great. There are, however, a few things I really don't like about the gameplay. Gone from Most Wanted & Carbon are perfect starts, which require to get your speedometer stick on a certain part of the actual speedometer when it changes color to give your car a bit of a necessary boost when you start, unless you want to drag on for about 30 seconds, trying to catch up to your opponents. Thankfully though, Undercover's AI is built around the lack of perfect start, so it's not like they'll speed up instantly, no, they'll generally start out at pretty much the same pace as you do. NFS Undercover has a multitude of game modes, with a few brand new game modes, never-before-seen in any previous Need for Speed game, or even any sub-sequent games - Jobs & Highway Battles. Briefly about the other game modes - they're standard fare what you'd find in other Need for Speed games - you got Circuit, Sprint, Checkpoint, Outrun (making a return from Underground 2) & Police Events. About those "exclusive" game modes, as it were. First - Jobs. Jobs are essentially your character stealing a car & then driving said car to a drop-off point, meanwhile cops are after you and your goal is to escape the cops & get to the drop off point. Most jobs don't have a time limit, so you can breathe in relief for the most part, however - most jobs do have damage meters, which are rather easy to deplete. Highway Battles are sort of glorified high-speed canyon events from Need for Speed Carbon, just with a lot of traffic & only 1 stage. The goal in Highway Battle is to get ahead of your opponent & lead by 300 m (or 1000 ft if you're using the Imperial system) while trying to not wreck your car with the insane amounts of traffic around you. These 2 exclusive game modes are generally executed very well, with the opponent AI sometimes being crafty enough to try and block your path by purposefully pushing traffic cars into you & they take advantage of every opportunity to overtake you and make your day horrible, should you screw up midway in the race. Making a return from Need for Speed ProStreet is domination, but this time - instead of completing an entire area to "dominate", dominations are handed out if you can manage to beat the developer time for each race in the game, not counting Jobs. Early game, beating the developer "domination" time is quite easy, but later down the road - it gets more & more difficult. For Customization - if you've played ProStreet & seen that game's insanely expansive customization system, then Undercover will bring nothing new and you can jump straight in. But for the new guys? I'll throw it out there right now - customizing your car (other than its performance) does nothing and won't give you any benefits like in ProStreet. They're just there if you want your car to look nicer, but be warned - if you will ever decide to play online (which will happen only if you have someone who plays this game after 10+ years), your vinyls that you apply to your car will not be shown. Why? Who the hell knows, but they disabled it. I haven't spent much time in the customization menu myself, so I really can't comment on anything here.

In the end, I believe Need for Speed Undercover is a highly underrated NFS title. Yes, it has a bad story, no, it's not as good as what BlackBox has done in the past and no, it doesn't look good for 2008 standards in terms of visuals. But with tight controls, a decent soundtrack, great optimisation & all around satisfying gameplay, I recommend NFS Undercover & I can safely say that it's one of the best racing games I have played on Steam, given how there isn't a huge library of racing games on Steam in general.

you cant buy this anymore :(

You guys released this on steam, how about underground 1 or 2 next?

Fedt soil med masser af ræs

EA. BRING NSF UNDERGROUND 2 TO STEAM PLSSSSSSSS

EA is selling an outdated version of Undercover on Steam, while they have the fully updated one on Origin.

Thanks alot EA.